新一代机器人来了

    现在为了进一步开发这项技术，iRobot公司又引入了它的第二大合作伙伴——思科公司（Cisco）。思科公司将与iRobot公司合作开发一款名叫Ava 500的远程呈现机器人。这款机器人的外观也很像RP-VITA，可以通过iPad进行控制。用户可以在地图上选取一个地点作为目的地，或者选取一个员工或患者的名字或是病房号，Ava 500就会自动出发走向那里，中途还会自行躲避行人和其它障碍物。等到会诊结束，它又会回到自己的底座上充电。

    在医疗领域，这个概念经受了最严苛的检验。目前这些远程机器人的问题主要是复杂性的问题。简单的机器人只能从事简单作业，而复杂的机器人则需对操控者进行培训，有时甚至需要一个单独的机器人专家来操作。以目前最先进的远程机器人为例，它要么需要由一个护士从一个地方挪到另一个地方，要么需要终端用户通过键盘或操纵杆操纵。这些解决方案的存在是有必要的，起码在最需要专家的时候解决了有无的问题。它们使医生们突破了环境的限制，可以同时在更多地方“现身”。但是它们不一定提高了医生的效率，事实上有时反而降低了医生的效率。一个训练有素的神经科医师，他每操纵一个机器人一分钟，可以说这一分钟的工作都对不起他的工资。因此InTouch Health的CEO王友仑表示，这种系统造成了时间和人才的浪费。

    机器人原本应该提高人们的效率，而不是降低效率。这就是为什么iRobot公司相信，RP-VITA最终可以成为一款真正的遥控机器人产品，而不是没什么大用处的遥控玩具。iRobot公司的安格尔说：“没有人因为科技而喜欢科技，因为科技往往没有把人们的生活变简单，而是变得更复杂了。”iRobot的工程师们希望任何人只要经过最简单的培训就能使用RP-VITA，他们也希望医护人员不需要掌握额外的技能，就能让RP-VITA自行处理某些任务，让医护人员能够把更多的精力放在提供医疗服务上。安格尔说：“那些需要医生花时间操纵机器人或是需要护士推着机器人走的方案根本不在我们考虑的范围内。”

    Today, the company doubled down on the idea by introducing its second big partner for the AVA platform: Cisco (CSCO). The networking giant will work with iRobot on the Ava 500 telepresence robot, which looks much like the VITA. The Ava is controlled via iPad, allowing users to choose pick a destination on a map or from a list of employee, names, and rooms they want the device to navigate to. So directed, the robot travels autonomously, avoiding people and other obstacles on its way. When a meeting is finished, the robot returns to its base for charging.

    But it is in medicine that the concept faces its most rigorous tests. The problem with the current spate of telerobotics is really one of complexity. Simple robots can only perform simple tasks, and complex robots require training -- and sometimes a separate roboticist -- to operate. The most advanced telemedicine robots, for example, must either be physically moved from place to place by a nurse or remotely piloted via keyboard controls or a joystick from the user end. These solutions exist out of necessity, addressing a supply and demand problem where specialists are concerned. They do allow doctors to be in more places than he or she could otherwise physically be, but they don't necessarily make doctors or nurses more efficient. In fact, the opposite is often true. Every minute a highly trained neurointensivist spends driving a robot around is a minute spent working far below his or her pay grade. And when nurses and doctors aren't operating at the top of their licenses, says InTouch Health CEO Yulun Wang, the system is bleeding time and talent.

    Robotics should amplify efficiency rather than stunt it, and that's why iRobot believes that in RP-VITA it finally has a real telerobotics product rather than another fun-for-minutes toy. "No one likes technology for technology's sake," says iRobot's Angle. "Often it complicates people's lives rather than simplifies it." With RP-VITA, iRobot engineers wanted something anyone could use intuitively with a minimum of training, and they wanted something that could handle tasks that didn't require a nurse's or doctor's specific skills on its own, freeing the health care practitioners to worry about providing health care. "The idea that the doctor was going to spend time driving the robot or ask the nurse to push the robot was a non-starter."